Dezeen Showroom: Narbutas has released the Surf task chair, which features a sail-like backrest designed to keep the user comfortable for hours.
Surf features a curved backrest that Narbutas describes as resembling a windsurfing sail.
The Surf task chair comes in nine different colours
While bringing a contemporary silhouette into the office, the chair sustains a high comfort level and can be easily adapted to the individual user by adjusting its lumbar support, armrests, synchro mechanism and seat.
Its backrest is upholstered in Narbutas's new Gabriel Runner mesh textile, which comes in nine different colours ranging from neutral tones to eye-catching brights.
The mesh backrest helps to maximise airflow and stop the user from overheating
The mesh aids comfort as it adapts to the contours of the back as well as maintaining constant airflow to avoid overheating.
Narbutas produced Surf in collaboration with German designer Justus Kolberg, who conceived the chair's backrest and lumbar support.
"The design combines simplicity, elegance, modernity and comfort," he explained.
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Italian fashion brand Sunnei has renovated the interior of an ex-recording studio to create a minimalist headquarters as a canvas for furniture and art pieces by the brand's collaborators.
Located near its flagship store in Milan, the brand named its headquarters and studio Palazzina Sunnei to reference typical Milanese residential buildings.
The Sunnei headquarters is located within a former recording studio
Palazzina Sunnei was organised as a series of multi-functional "livable spaces".
It houses a photo studio, showroom, archive and meeting rooms along with office space for Sunnei's team.
When the fashion brand first moved into its new headquarters in 2020 it occupied a single building titled Palazzina 1.
More recently, the brand expanded into an adjoining building, aptly titled Palazzina 2, which has interiors designed by Milan-based Studio Mare.
A Superronda sofa by Archizoom was positioned in its showroom space
The addition to the headquarters was designed by Studio Mare and occupies three neighbouring floors totalling an additional 400 square metres of space.
The interiors of the headquarters have a minimal palette and are populated by artworks, objects and furniture by friends and collaborators of the brand.
"We asked some of our artist friends to create some pieces just for us to fill the blank areas," Sunnei founders Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo told Dezeen.
"These items are never invasive, rather they offer a nice surprise while wandering the building."
The interiors of the headquarters have a minimal and pared-back look
Insulating, soundproofing ceiling panels from the building's former use cover the ceilings of rooms and were incorporated throughout the design of Palazzina 1.
Walls were painted white and fitted with white-painted cork panels that can be used as pinboards for the team's ideas.
Hard materials, including concrete, polished stone and terrazzo, cover the floors and juxtapose with the building's original function as a recording studio.
Sunnei fitted the Palazzina with furniture and objects designed by friends and collaborators
"We also wanted to turn the whole office into a whiteboard and so we did," said Messina and Rizzo.
"All of the internal walls on each floor are coated by cork panels which allow us to experiment, paste our thoughts and ideas onto it to help us better visualize what we are doing."
A polished metal table and chairs designed by NM3 were placed in the corner of the courtyard
Much like Sunnei's bold and bright direction, the brand inserted unexpected and sculptural pieces throughout the building.
The basement level of the headquarters houses the brand's showroom, meeting rooms and a courtyard. In the showroom, a wall of Funktion-One speakers occupy the rear of the space and serve as a backdrop for a collection of off-white Superonda sofas by Archizoom for Poltronova.
Custom made outdoor furniture was crafted Milan-based NM3 from laser-cut stainless steel sheets and reflect the courtyard and surrounding trees from its polished surfaces.
"The magic happens in the garden, where the furniture is designed by Milan based collective NM3 and pieces by Ben Orkin," said Messina and Rizzo.
Walls of the headquarters were fitted with white painted cork panels
An elevator, which runs through the core of the building, connects Palazzina 1 and 2 via doors that open on both sides forming a moving corridor between the two spaces.
Gaming and office hybrid chairs were organised around large meeting tables, while in other rooms yoga ball chairs provide flexible seating options.
Palazzina kept recording studio features including insulated ceilings and a control room window
Denim upholstered Le Bambole chairs and sofa set by Mario Bellini fill the founders' main office space below wall-mounted ear-shaped speakers by New York-based designer Sam Stewart.
"We have big, made to measure, square desks and ergonomic chairs...while our creative office has a piece by Sam Stewart, Bambole couches by Bellini for B&B and a table by Bloc Studios," said Messina and Rizzo.
"We made a point to create a lot of communal spaces where they can mingle and bond and take some time to decompress."
Unexpected furniture was placed around the office included chairs fitted with exercise balls
On the upper floors, a custom-built modular metal kitchen unit by Very Simple Kitchen zones a small canteen. In the canteen is a large chipboard table surrounded by stools by Visibility for Matter Made.
Adjoined to the canteen-style space, are the building's e-commerce, social media, PR and photo studios and are similarly scattered with sculptures including pistachio green pieces by Alton Alvarez.
A metal kitchen by Very Simple Kitchen locates a canteen area
"We hope people will use the space as if it was their own home. Yes, this is an office and being here is not always the most fun but we hope being surrounded by beautiful decor will motivate our team," said the founders.
"We also love to invite our friends to come and chill, drink a glass of wine. We want people to feel great when they visit us. It goes from everybody, from suppliers to press and collaborators."
The studio wanted to create multi-functional spaces
Design studio Playfool has created a set of sustainable crayons made entirely from Japanese wood, which was designed to celebrate the unseen colours within a forest's trees.
The coloured crayons are triangular in shape and made entirely from wood salvaged from Japanese lumberyards.
Available in a variety of hues, from cedar and cypress to walnut and oak, the project aims to celebrate the natural pigments found in wood.
The crayons are triangular-shaped
"We started off wanting to develop a way to create with wood like never before," Playfool founders Daniel and Saki Coppen told Dezeen.
"After discovering the under-appreciated beauty of wood’s natural hues, we were motivated to achieve our goal by transforming wood into a drawing tool."
Playfool experimented with grinding wood into fine powder
The crayon prototypes were made by finely grinding down raw wood and combining it with natural wax, derived from the Japanese Hazenoki tree. The mixture was then poured into a crayon-shaped silicon mould.
"We were fascinated by how reworking the material into a formless substance allowed us to appreciate it not for its shape or strength but purely for its colour," the studio said.
Various species of trees form the crayons
Playfool sourced the wood from a lumberyard in Japan's Hida Mountains, which are known for their abundance of forests.
"At the lumberyard, we were amazed at the vast spectrum of hues the forest has to offer and immediately understood how the colour of wood is so much more than simply brown," the designers explained.
Forest Crayons aim to celebrate the colours of Japanese wood
The project began as part of a residency programme called the Wood Change Camp that focusses on finding alternative applications for Japanese wood, as two-thirds of Japan is covered in forests.
"In order to maintain the health of Japan’s forests, trees must undergo a continuous cycle of harvesting and replanting to lower the risk of disasters such as landslides," the studio said.
"However, due to increasingly cheap import costs, the country must deal with an abundance of wood, and although some of it is used for architecture or furniture, much of it is still left unappreciated," the studio added.
Through the project, Playfool sought to celebrate the richness of colours found in Japanese wood while contributing to the healthy maintenance of the country's trees.
The project highlights how wood isn't all brown-coloured
The project was informed by the notion of Responsible Consumption and Production, one of the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals that were established in 2015 in response to the climate crisis.
"ForestCrayons act as a powerful communication tool in promoting awareness for Japan’s forests," concluded the designers.
"By emphasising this unexpected aspect of wood, we hope the project can reinvigorate a passion for nature and inspire people to continue maintaining and caring for the forests for future generations."
The project is nominated for the 2021 Dezeen Awards
Playfool is a London and Tokyo-based design studio that aims to take a play-based approach to design and engineering.
Black granite, terrazzo, and concrete all contrast the lush vegetation at this compound on Mexico City's elite Paseo de la Reforma, which houses the official residence of the Swiss Ambassador to Mexico.
The residence of the Swiss Ambassador in Mexico City was comprehensively renovated by Swiss studio Fruehauf, Henry & Viladoms (FHV) in collaboration with local architects Blancasmoran. Originally built in 1952, the property no longer met the functional, security, and seismic requirements of the residence.
The residence of the Swiss ambassador in Mexico City has thick concrete walls
Located in the upscale neighbourhood of Lomas de Chapultepec, the property is sited on a steep slope that leads down to a stream below.
The land is lush with vegetation, a feature that the team sought to highlight in its design.
A lush courtyard leads visitors to the house
From the busy street, the building is protected by a seven-metre-tall concrete wall. "A horizontal folding gives it an austere, intriguing and sophisticated presence," the architects said in a project description.
The compound is entered via a courtyard that leads to the house. Each of the rectangular volumes that make up the home is angled relative to the street, unlike the neighbouring buildings, which follow the city grid.
Terrazzo was used for the exterior and interior floor finishes, lending a sense of continuity between the courtyard, the residence, and the terraced garden beyond. This uniformity is enhanced by an abundance of vegetation in all spaces.
"The vegetation is lush," said the architects. "It is omnipresent on the path leading from the access courtyard through the house and to the garden below."
Terrazzo was used for the floor finishes
Within the home itself, service spaces are housed in monolithic black granite blocks that delineate and organise the main programme areas.
The ground floor contains a variety of communal areas, including a long dining table for hosting formal dinners.
Inside spaces are housed in monolithic black granite blocks
Both the dining room and living room feature operable glass walls that open to the back of the property, where a large staircase brings visitors down to the dense gardens below.
"A generous staircase provides a comfortable transition to the garden platform," said the architects. "A succession of cascading plateaus provides a smooth transition to the natural environment of the ravine."
"It is difficult to distinguish the boundary between interior and exterior, which is reduced to the large floor-to-ceiling windows that define the living spaces," the team added.
The upper level contains five bedrooms, which are similarly housed in black granite volumes. They receive natural light via full-height glass walls. In the interstices between the bedrooms, a variety of spaces such as a secondary living room and a kitchenette provide more flexibility to residents.
A large granite staircase inside the building
"Between the blocks are the common living areas where the visual relationship with the outside is continuous," the architects said.
The first floor slab and the roof project out significantly from the living spaces, creating deep overhangs that provide shade to the living areas.
Eucalyptus wood offsets granite elements
Interiors were finished with a palette that matches the restrained vocabulary of the exterior. Eucalyptus wood joins with the other materials to provide a touch of warmth in bedrooms and other private areas.
A similar minimalist aesthetic can be found in other Swiss diplomatic posts around the world. The country's embassy in Nairobi features pigmented concrete walls, while its consulate in Chicago has interiors that nod to 1960s.
Owner: FOCL - Federal Office for Buildings and Logistics Project manager: Cédric Pernet Authors: Fruehauf, Henry & Viladoms, Blancasmoran Project team: Claudius Fruehauf, Guillaume Henry, Carlos Viladoms, Andrea Ishii, Matthieu Friedli (FHV). Abel Blancas Moran, Ricardo Saab (Blancasmoran) Construction company: Impulsa Group (Eduardo Campos, Mario Valdivieso, Daniel Flores) Landscape Architect: Taller Entorno Arquitectura de Paisaje Engineers: BVG Group Lighting: Luz en arquitectura
Rules restricting the use of wood in UK buildings are hampering the switch to low-carbon building methods, according to timber architecture expert Andrew Waugh.
Waugh attacked recent government legislation and new funding rules for affordable housing in London, both of which make it harder for architects to specify timber.
Timber architecture expert Andrew Waugh
"It's a car crash," said Waugh, describing the restrictions as "pseudo common sense not based on any expert opinion."
Both rules have been introduced in the wake of the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster, in which 72 people died after the plastic-and-aluminium cladding on the London housing block caught fire.
Waugh described the rules as a "politicised knee-jerk reaction" that confuse combustibility with fire performance and contradict efforts to tackle carbon emissions from construction.
"Carbon taxes on building materials are an inevitability," Waugh said, referring to the fact that construction accounts for around 40 per cent of global emissions.
"Carbon will have to be accounted for and as soon as that happens, then we will need to be building in low-carbon building materials."
Waugh Thistleton is building an all-timber structure office in Shoreditch
"At the same time, there's a politicised knee-jerk reaction against anything combustible, meaning that you won't be able to build in low-carbon materials," he added.
"That is going to create a policy car crash where they're legislating against something while at the same time legislating for it."
Waugh said that the London mayor's office has been unable to explain whether the ban applies to window frames and lintels, which are commonly made of timber.
Embodied carbon, which describes emissions caused during the construction process, has come under the spotlight recently.
These emissions account for around half of all emissions from the built environment but have been neglected when compared to operational carbon, which is the term for emissions caused by buildings in use.
"This needs to change," Waugh said. "I think governments are still wrapped up in talking about operational carbon [emissions caused by the building in use] but actually the western world is already really efficient at building efficient buildings."
Green certification schemes "meaningless"
In an interview with Dezeen earlier this year, Waugh described green certification schemes such as BREEAM and LEED as "meaningless" since they focus on reducing operational emissions while overlooking embodied carbon.
"They're meaningless," he said. "They are awards that prop up the existing systems."
Interest in biomaterials including timber, hemp, cork and mycelium has surged recently as architects explore ways of reducing the embodied carbon of their projects.
The studio is currently building a five-storey office building in Shoreditch, London, which features an all-timber structure. The architect claims it is the first multi-storey timber office to be built in the city since the 17th century.
